Free and Full Consent in Entering a Marriage
Legislation on marriage should require the free and full consent of both parties. To ensure to ensure that consent is freely and fully given, laws should provide the mechanisms necessary to determine valid consent. For example, laws should require the physical presence of both parties and witnesses as a means of establishing consent. Drafters should require consent to be expressed in person by the parties and in the presence of an authority competent to formalize the marriage and in the presence of witnesses. To combat nonconsensual marriages, drafters should not confer legal recognition to marriages by proxy, but instead require the presence of both parties plus witnesses at the legal proceeding for the marriage. Laws should authorize a registrar to interview both parties prior to the marriage where there are doubts about free and full consent. For example, Norway provides a mechanism allowing an official to interview both parties to ensure they have consented to the marriage. (See: Forced and Child Marriage)

Abolition of Bride Price
Legislation should prohibit the practice of bride price, or where payments or goods, such as livestock from the groom’s family are made to the bride’s family in exchange for the bride. Alternatively, drafters should consider reforming bride price practices so that bride price payment is considered a non-refundable gift. Legislation should state that bride price is not a condition for solemnization of a customary or other marriage. Where a bride price has been paid, legislation should prohibit the deceased’s family from demanding the bride price back from the widow in return for the marital land and property.

Example: The Tororo District Council in Uganda passed the Bridal Gift Ordinance in 2008, stating that any bride price becomes a non-refundable bridal gift. Guidelines for implementation, outreach and public awareness is important to facilitating effective implementation. (See: Tororo District Passes the Ordinance Bill 2008 on Bride Price, MIFUMI Newsletter, Oct. 10, 2010; Thiara, Ravi K. and Gill Hague, Bride Price, Poverty, and Domestic Violence in Uganda, MIFUMI, 2010)

Annulment of a Forced Marriage and Divorce
Drafters should consider the legal options for the survivor/complainant to end a levirate, sororate or other forced marriage. Laws should guarantee to women the same rights and responsibilities at the dissolution of a marriage as men. Laws regarding annulment of a marriage should safeguard both parties’ rights to property and guarantee them information regarding the proceedings. Any options for ending a marriage should protect her rights, including those related to property, child custody, immigration status and support.

Laws may annul a marriage as void or voidable. Voiding a marriage does not require a formal decree and will render the marriage as though it never existed. Statutes generally void a marriage under certain fundamental conditions, for example, an absence of voluntary consent, a party is already married, a party is not of legal age, or the parties are related within a certain number of degrees. Drafters should carefully evaluate the context and survivors involved when determining whether to annul forced marriages as void or voidable.

Drafters should be aware of civil laws that may negatively impact the status of children or property rights when a marriage is automatically voided. The Newham Asian Women’s Project noted that children borne of voided marriages will be regarded as illegitimate in the UK unless both parties held a reasonable belief that the marriage was legitimate and the husband’s residence is in England or Wales. In contrast, a voidable marriage requires a formal court decree for termination. Laws should not impose time restrictions upon when a party may seek to annul a marriage, but may instead increase the presumption of the marriage’s validity with time. If a marriage is voided and automatically renders the child’s status as illegitimate, that may negatively impact not only the children but also the widow’s right to her natal property, as her family may perceive its subsequent devolution to the child as leaving the family line. 

Drafters should eliminate any compulsory waiting periods for divorce aimed at facilitating reconciliation between parties in a forced marriage. Laws should not grant legal recognition to religious traditions that deny women due process in divorce proceedings. Divorce should only be recognized through formal legal mechanisms. For example, by saying “talaq” or “I divorce you” three times, a man can divorce his wife under Sunni Muslim tradition. Women who have been so divorced lose their home and financial support. Laws should not only prohibit this practice but also establish a legal process and legal aid resources for women to assert claims for marital support, child custody and property claims against husbands who have left them in this manner.
(See: Forced and Child Marriage)

Polygamous Marriages
Legislation should prohibit polygamous marriage, which discriminates against women and has severe impacts on additional wives. For example, the death of the husband can diminish what security of tenure the additional wives may have, particularly when their inheritance is denied or fragmented. Women in polygamous marriages face difficulties, particularly where polygamy is prohibited or laws restrict registration to only one wife. These situations result in unofficial—and therefore unrecognized—marriages for the additional wives that are outside the reach of marriage laws. Both the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women have found that polygamous marriages discriminate against women and recommend their prohibition. Permitting the practice of polygamy violates Article 3 of the ICCPR (equal rights of women and men). Article 5(a) of CEDAW, which requires States Parties to “modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.” Furthermore, a polygamous marriage violates a woman’s right to equality in marriage and has severe financial effects on her and her children. CEDAW, Gen. Rec. 21, ¶ 14. In these cases, additional wives lack the legal standing to assert their claims to property because their marital status lacks formal recognition or is even prohibited. Upon their husband’s death, these additional wives are excluded from property entitlement.

Legislation should address the inheritance and property rights of women who are currently in polygamous marriages. For example, laws should state that each surviving widow is entitled to a life interest in the marital home in which they lived with the deceased. In cases of intestacy, widows should each receive a preferential share of the estate, with different amounts depending on the length of the marriage and the number of minor children.

Registration of Marriages
Drafters should ensure that laws require the registration of births, deaths and marriages as a means of tracking marriages and parties’ ages. Drafters should ensure that registration is required for all marriages, including both civil and customary unions. Data gathered through registration systems should be used to monitor and facilitate enforcement of the minimum marriage age standard, as well as compile statistics on marriages. Laws must take into account illiteracy rates that may prevent parties from registering their marriages. Drafters should provide for oral registration and an alternative signature, such as a fingerprint, and fund and train local civil society to provide free assistance in customary marriage registration.